Devil in an Angel's Skin
by Hypnotoad76
Summary: Annie is bitten by a werewolf, and the group must race against time to save her before she becomes a full-fledged monster
1. Chapter 1

"Hello," Shirley cooed as she made her way into the study room. She put her signature bag on the floor before putting a large ornate cross that was in her other hand on the table.

"Shirley, what's that?" Britta asked.

"It's a cross. I know you don't believe in God, but I figured you'd at least know what this is."

"I know what a…" Britta gritted her teeth in frustration before continuing. "I'm just asking why you have it here."

"I had a presentation in my religious allegory class and I brought it in to pass around."

"Is that thing real silver?" Pierce asked.

"Yes it is," Shirley exclaimed proudly. "100% silver. It was a wedding gift when Andre and I got married."

"You know, I know I guy who can fetch you a few hundred dollars-."

"Not on your life Pierce," Shirley said sternly. She quickly took the cross and put it under her chair so it was out of sight before taking out her notes. The group spent the next few minutes studying before Shirley's phone went off. "Hello Andre. I was just, what? What happened?" She clutched her phone in concern as she listened to her husband on the other line. "Okay, I'll be right there."

"Is everything all right?" Annie asked.

"Jordon fell off his bike and he might have a concussion. Andre brought him to the hospital, so I'm meeting him there now," she quickly explained as she packed up.

"Do you want any of us to go with you?" Troy asked.

"I'm good, thanks. I'll see you tomorrow," Shirley yelled as she grabbed her bag and quickly raced out of the study room.

"I don't know why she's so concerned," Pierce said. "I got concussions all the time when I was a kid and I turned out great."

After a moment all of them (Pierce included) looked over at Jeff's empty seat, sadly thinking that if he was there he would have had a witty retort to Pierce's comment. "Oh all right, I'll say something," Britta responded with exasperation. "Yeah, you're as all right as a-."

"It doesn't work when you do it," Abed said simply.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The group studied until 4:30, when they decided to call it a night. As they packed up Annie told them she was staying so she could do some more research for a presentation in her Forensic Psychology class that she had on Thursday. Troy said he'd save her some pizza he and Abed were getting for dinner before they left her to her studying.

Once they were gone Annie spread her books out on the table and continued with her note taking. Her pen flew across her notebook as she gathered useful tidbits for her presentation. She became so into her studies that she completely lost track of time. By the time she finally stopped to check her watch, it was past 8:00.

"Wow, I was only going to spend an hour or two here." She gathered her notes and textbooks up when a pen rolled onto the floor. As she bent down to retrieve it she spotted Shirley's cross under the table. Annie picked up the cross and put it on the table. Once she was all packed up she slung her backpack over her shoulders and grabbed the cross before heading out.

She quickly texted Abed and Troy that she was leaving the library, putting her phone away just as she walked out of the building. As she walked to her car a feeling of unease took hold of her. She glanced around, but didn't see anyone else in the parking lot. Just as she thought it was all in her head she heard something completely unexpected: the long, high-pitched drone of a wolf howl.

Annie stopped dead in her tracks, fear completely taking over. She breathed rapidly as she tried to calm herself. _It can't be a wolf_, she rationalized. _There aren't any forests around here._ _It's probably just a stray dog or something._

She quickened her strides, wishing she hadn't parked so far away. As another howl was heard she walked even faster. Her steps turned into a full sprint as she saw her car in the distance. She pulled her keys out of her cardigan as she raced to her car.

Then without so much as a warning, the attack came.

She was thrown to her stomach as the creature snarled and tore at her backpack. Annie screamed and fought as her arms and upper back were scratched by the wolf's claws. Annie twisted her body just as the creature went for her neck. Instead it missed and bit down into her shoulder. Annie cried out in terror, the pain practically blinding her.

As the animal shook her like a rag doll Annie spotted Shirley's cross a few inches away. She desperately inched her fingers around the object and brought it up, driving it into the wolf's pelt. Again and again she stabbed the creature, her own desperate yelling mixed with the animal's cries as blood rained down on her. With a final scream like howl the wolf leapt off her back, stepping on the back of her neck and causing her to hit her head hard against the pavement, as it scampered off into the darkness.

Annie slipped from consciousness just as Neil ran into the parking lot. "What happened? I heard yelling and-." He gasped as he saw Annie lying on the pavement, unconsciousness and covered in blood. "Oh my God. Somebody help!" Neil knelt beside her as he pulled his phone out and dialed 911.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The wolf ran from the Greendale parking lot, leaving a trail of blood as it limped away. It was hurt badly, and needed to find a place to rest so it could have a chance to heal. It stopped to try and catch its breath when a gunshot rang through the air. The wolf dropped to the ground an instant later.

The beast howled in pain as a man approached the creature, placing the barrel of a gun right over its heart. With his other hand he took out a pair of pliers and yanked the canine teeth out of the animal's mouth. As it tried to bite his fingers the man pulled the trigger, sending a silver bullet straight through its heart.

The man stepped back as the creature's body began to change. Its fur retreated into its body as its snout and tail shrunk into itself. Its limps shortened and the paws morphed into hands and feet. The feral yellow eyes became light brown, as the fangs shrank back to human molars.

In a matter of moments, the wolf was completely gone, with a naked man having taken its place. The hunter knelt next to the man, feeling as always grief at having to take a life to prevent the spread of darkness. But this time he also felt anger at not being able to ask more quickly. He'd heard the yelling from before and knew someone had been attacked.

The hunter followed the trail of blood to the parking lot, where he saw two people there. One was a large man named Neil he'd seen around campus. But the other was Annie Edison, who was lying on the ground with wounds on her body. He sighed deeply, knowing he had to find out what her status was. And for her sake, he actually hoped the creature had killed her.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff sighed deeply as he gathered up all the notes he'd been working on for his current case. He really hoped he'd get some more prestigious cases than the ones he had been assigned lately. But apparently he couldn't just start at the top at a new job, even with his previous experience.

He glanced at the clock in his office as he packed up his briefcase, seeing it was almost 9:00. _No wonder I'm hungry_, he thought. He walked out of his office and locked it up just as his phone went off.

"Hey Shirley. I'm just leaving work, so if you haven't eaten yet we can…" He stood stock still as he listened to her on the other line. "I'm leaving right now. Which hospital is she at…I'll be right there."

Twenty minutes later he burst into the emergency room, seeing Shirley, Britta, Troy and Abed sitting on a bench. "Jeffrey!" Shirley cried as she jumped up and gripped Jeff in a tight hug.

"How is she?" Jeff asked, his voice thick with emotion.

"We don't know, no one's told us anything," Shirley said as she released Jeff.

"Pierce knows one of the nurses, so he's trying to find out something from her," Troy said in a daze.

Jeff greeted everyone before noticing that Neil was also among them. "Neil, what are you doing here?"

"I was the one who found Annie. I came to see if she's going to be all right."

"Well what happened? What's wrong with her? Shirley just said Annie was attacked."

"I don't know. I came back to school to get something I left in my locker when I heard a woman screaming. By the time I got there all I saw was Annie unconscious in the parking lot with blood all over her."

Jeff's body tensed up as he grabbed Neil's shoulders. "You didn't see anything!?"

"Jeff!" Jeff backed off as Britta pulled him off Neil. "We're all upset here. But it's not going to do any good if we're fighting."

Surprised that Britta was being the voice of reason, Jeff nodded his head before looking back at Neil. "Sorry."

"No worries. I'd be the same way if Vicki had been attacked."

Before Jeff could process further meaning in that statement Abed got up and went over to a doctor who was passing by. "Rich."

The whole group got up in surprise as they saw that the man was indeed Rich. He offered his trademark smile as they all came over to him. "Well hey everyone. How's it going?"

"Annie was attacked by something and brought here," Abed said simply. "Do you know how she is?"

Rich's smile left his face as he wiped his forehead. "Oh my, that's terrible. I didn't even know she was brought in here."

Jeff narrowed his eyes, sensing there was something off with the doctor's body language, just as Pierce came over to them. "Pierce. Did you find anything out?" Troy asked as the group turned their attention to the older man.

"It took some doing, but Erica helped me out after I threw her some of the ol Hawthorne charm. It seems Annie was attacked by some kind of animal based on the attack wounds. There were scratches on her body, and a bite wound near her neck."

"Is she going to be okay?" Jeff frantically asked.

"They don't know," Pierce said seriously. "She has a concussion, and was still unconscious the last time they checked on her. They've bandaged her wounds, but for now Erica said we just have to wait until she regains consciousness to see what they're dealing with."

Jeff took a shaky breath as the full weight of Annie's condition took hold of him. "Rich, can you see if there's anything-." He looked around in surprise as he saw that the doctor was no longer among them. "Where'd he go?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich quietly slipped into room 547, closing the door before approaching Annie. She was still unconscious, but appeared to be in good shape. Her heart monitor was beating steadily, and she didn't have any visible bruising. Rich removed the bandage from her shoulder, sadly unsurprised at seeing that the wound was already completely healed.

He took a syringe out of his coat pocket, having already prepared it with an undetectable poison that would put her into cardiac arrest. "I'm so sorry Annie. I hate to do this, but its better this way than the hell that would await you."

He was just about to put the needle in her IV tube when the door opened and a nurse burst in. "Dr. Stephenson. You need to come right now. Bill Mulligan's having an allergic reaction to the medicine he was just given."

"I'll be there in a minute. I'm just checking up on-."

"This can't wait, his throat's closing up and he's going into shock." The nurse grabbed his arm (not noticing him slip the syringe back in his lab coat) and pulled the doctor out of the room. Rich glanced back at Annie's room, hoping he could get to her before she woke up, before marching off to treat his patient.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"What time is it?" Britta asked Troy.

Troy checked his phone before dully saying, "3:07 a.m."

The group had been in the emergency room for hours, hoping to get some prognoses on Annie's condition. Neil had left around midnight, asking them to call him in the morning if they had any news. Shirley would go to check on Jordon every hour (he was spending the night at the hospital) before returning to keep vigil with the group. Pierce had fallen asleep not long after Neil left, with Abed passing the time by keeping count of how many snores the man would make in a hour. Britta had left a few times to make coffee runs, but spend most of her time sitting with Troy, absentmindedly running her fingers through his hair as she leaned against his shoulder.

Jeff sat next to Shirley, staring off into space as he tried to keep his emotions from spilling out. They still hadn't heard anything regarding Annie's condition. He'd harassed the nurses several times already, but no one would give him any news.

_She's going to be all right_, he frantically repeated in his head. _She has to be all right_.

He glanced up as he heard::Code Blue, fifth floor, room 547:: across the PA system.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

As the resuscitation staff raced to room 547 they heard loud screaming in addition to the heart monitor beating wildly. Though they were more surprised when the human cries seemed to morph into animal like snarls and growls. They burst into the room, looking on in shock at what they saw in there.

There was no patient in the room. Instead a large wolf was standing on top of the hospital bed. The bed shook ominously from the creature's weight as it looked at the people standing in the doorway. With a savage growl it leapt off the bed, sending everyone scurrying away as it charged out of the room.

"We need animal control right now!" one of the orderlies yelled into a nearby phone. "There's a wolf in the hospital! Tell everyone to lock their doors and get someone down here right now!"

The wolf ran down the hallways as fast as it could, ignoring people that ran away from it. All it cared about was getting out of the building. It rounded a corner and shot into an open elevator. The animal ricocheted over the medal walls as the elevator automatically went down to the main floor. As soon as the elevator door opened the wolf leapt out and ran down the hallway, bursting through doors on its quest for freedom. It cried out from the alarms that sounded all around it as it crashed through a glass window and ran into the emergency room just as several men surrounded the animal.

"Everyone back!" one of the orderlies yelled to the people in the area before looking at the other hospital staff with him. "Keep it contained until animal control arrives." He raised the metal IV stand in his hands as he approached the animal, signaling for the other men to do the same.

Though he approached with caution, he wasn't at all prepared for the wolf raising a paw and batting the IV stand out of his hands. It jumped on top of the man, knocking him to the ground. But before it could do anything the other men hit at it with their weapons. The animal jumped off the orderly and looked around for the exit when it spotted the study group, who were huddled in fright behind the wooden benches. As it ran towards them Jeff and Abed threw chairs at it to slow it down. The creature howled in pain as it stopped and stared at them with an almost mournful look in its eyes.

As they looked at the enormous animal Jeff noticed something peculiar. Its eyes weren't the expected yellow wolves normally had, but blue. A very familiar shade of blue.

Jeff snapped out of his thoughts as a tranquillizer dart whizzed past the wolf. The animal looked over as animal control ran into the lobby. "Keep back everyone, keep back!"

Without warning the wolf charged the animal control group, knocking them to the ground as it burst out of the building and raced out of sight. The head of the group pulled a radio out as she signaled for her team to follow the creature. "Animal is loose, I repeat, animal is loose. Lone wolf, approximately the size and weight of an adult St. Bernard. Creature appears to be heading west on Main Street. Send out an alert telling people to stay indoors. And I want eyes in the air as well as people on the ground. LET'S MOVE IT PEOPLE!" she yelled as she pocketed her radio and led her team out of the hospital.

As everyone excitedly talked among themselves over what had just happened, no one noticed Rich standing there looking at the lobby door. He sighed in exasperation, wishing he could have prevented this earlier when he was in Annie's room. Or even better, if he had been able to kill the first werewolf before it had attacked Annie. But now he once again had to go on the hunt, and do what had to be done.


	2. Chapter 2

Annie groaned as she opened her eyes. Her entire body ached, and the sunlight hurt her eyes. She breathed deeply before realizing she wasn't lying in her bed, but instead was outside surrounded by trees.

Her confusion quickly turned to fear when she realized she'd not only woken up in the dirt, but also wasn't wearing any clothes. _What happened to me_, she thought. The last thing she remembered was being attacked by an animal after leaving the library. She hugged her body tightly as horrible scenarios ran through her head, like the possibility that the animal was someone's pet and after the attack the owner violated her and then dumped her in the woods.

Trying to control her trembling Annie shakily got to her feet and looked around for something to cover herself with. But there weren't any clothes around, and she didn't see anything she could really use. Reluctantly she began walking as she was, hoping she'd come upon a road or something soon. After a little while Annie came to a stream. As soon as she saw the water her throat started gagging as she realized just how thirsty she was. She dropped to her knees and began scooping handfuls of water into her mouth.

Annie suddenly stopped drinking as she heard a slight rustling in the grass. She slowly lifted her head up before spotting a brown rabbit a few feet away. As she looked at the animal she was struck with a sudden urge to kill it. To rip its throat open with her teeth and bath in its blood before devouring its flesh.

_What's happening to me_, she thought fearfully.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"I don't care if it's only been a few hours; you need to fill a missing person's report right now!" Jeff yelled into his phone. His face grew more frustrated as he listened to the police officer on the other line. With a yell of frustration Jeff hung up his phone, almost throwing it to the ground before stopping himself at the last moment.

Not long after the wolf incident the group was informed that Annie wasn't in her hospital bed. They looked all throughout the hospital, but she couldn't be located anywhere. No one had any idea where Annie was.

"Maybe she woke up and left on her own?" Britta said once again.

"Annie wouldn't leave without calling one of us first," Abed said simply.

"Well we can't just stay here doing nothing," Troy said.

Jeff nodded in agreement as he formulated a plan. "All right, if the police won't help we'll have to find her ourselves. Pierce, stay here in case she comes back on her own or is brought back. Abed and Troy, go back to your place and see if she's there. If she isn't, wait there in case she goes back home. Shirley, you and Britta go to any shelters or anyplace someone who's wondering around might turn up. I'm going to drive around looking for her. Okay?" He waited, but no one seemed to argue with his plan. "All right, let's find our friend."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie stood in her apartment bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. After what had happened last night she had expected to look much worse than she did. But she didn't seem to have any wounds or bruises on her. She pulled back the neck of her t-shirt (she was still wearing the shirt and sweat pants she had stolen from a clothes line on her way back home) to inspect her shoulder. But there was no wound there at all. It was like nothing had happened to her last night. And the complete lack of evidence disturbed her more than if she had woken up covered in cuts and bruises.

She glanced outside as the front door opened and Troy and Abed walked in. "Maybe we should ask the neighbors if they've heard anything-." Troy instantly stopped talking as the two of them saw Annie. "Annie!" He ran over and engulfed her in a tight hug. "We were so worried about you."

Annie kept her arms by her sides before dully returning Troy's hug. "I'm all right."

"We're glad we found you Annie," Abed said with a bit more emotion than usual.

"What happened to you? How did you end up here?" Troy asked as he released her. "I mean, we know you were attacked by some kind of animal, but you were at the hospital and then you suddenly disappeared. What happened?"

"I…I don't know. The last thing I remember was being attacked in the parking lot when I was going to my car, and then I woke up here," Annie said timidly. She wasn't sure why she was lying about waking up in the woods, but something inside of her seemed to say it was the right thing to do. She groaned in frustration as Abed looked at her intently. "Stop looking at me like that. I'm going to go lay down."

"Wait, don't you want to call the others and let them know you're okay?" Troy asked. "Everyone's really worried about you."

"I'll talk to them later. I'm just really tired right now." With that Annie went over to her room and closed the door.

"She's hiding something," Abed stated.

"Maybe she's just out of sorts over everything," Troy suggested. "She was attacked by an animal last night, and then sleep walked back here. Maybe we should just let her rest for a while. But let's call the others and tell them Annie's alright."

As she got into bed and pulled the covers over her Annie wiped the sweat from her face. She felt hot and itchy, like her skin didn't feel quite right. She tried stretching but still couldn't shake the feeling. She placed a pillow over her face, hoping she'd feel better if she got some sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich impatiently packed up his things before leaving his wood working class. He'd checked all the usual spots and hadn't heard any word on where Annie might be. He needed to find her before the sun set. It was imperative that he get to her.

He'd hoped he might get some clues to her whereabouts if he went to school. But no one from the group seemed to be there today. And since he didn't have any of their cell phone numbers, he had no way of contacting any of them.

As he made his way down the hallway he smiled as he spotted Neil. _The fates might just be smiling upon me, _he thought. "Neil!" he yelled out as he made his way over to the man. "How's it going? I'm not sure if we've ever been introduced, I'm Rich."

"I know who you are."

"Great. I saw you at the hospital last night with Annie Edison's friends, and I was wondering if you've heard anything about her, since she's been missing since last night."

"Um, yeah. Abed texted me and said she's home and she's fine."

"Really? That's great. I've got to go, but thanks for the update. I've been really worried about her." With that Rich made a beeline to the dean's office. He hid in the shadows until the man left before sneaking into the office and going through student records until he found Annie's current address. Armed with that info Rich marched out of the school and to his car. He opened the trunk and made sure he had all his supplies with him: guns with silver bullets along with spare ammo, a tranquilizer gun, bombs filed with liquefied silver and wolfsbane, and a pair of pure silver hunting knives. Seeing that he had everything he got in his car and made his way to Casa AnnTroBed.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie woke up in a daze, clutching her bed sheets tightly. She felt feverish, and more off then when she went to sleep. She frowned as she saw shadowy sunlight coming through her curtains, then gasped as she looked at her clock and saw that it was 6pm. She had slept almost the entire day away. That must be why she felt out of sorts, and why she was ravenously hungry.

When she opened her door and walked out into the living room she wasn't expecting the sight before her: Jeff sitting in Troy's recliner watching TV with Abed.

"You're awake," Abed said without even turning around.

"Annie," Jeff said as he got up and went towards her. "I was so worried about you."

"What are you doing here? Where's Troy?"

"He went to get some sandwiches."

"Well, what are you doing here?" she repeated.

"I'm worried about you. You were attacked by an animal last night and then just disappeared without a trace. And then you just went to sleep without telling anyone you were alright."

"I've been through a lot Jeff! I wasn't exactly up for having a ton of heart to hearts with everyone!"

"We're all just worried about you. Everyone's stopped by during the day to see how you're doing. We care about you."

"Well maybe you should-." Annie paused as her eyes widened and she started making gasping noises.

"What's wrong?" Jeff asked as Abed got up and went over to them.

"I don't know," she said. She took deep breaths as Jeff took hold of her arms.

"You're burning up. Let's get you over to the couch and-." Jeff let go of her as Annie cried out and dropped to her hands and knees, shaking with uncontrollable spasms. "Abed, call 911 right now!" Jeff yelled as Annie's arms and legs bend at impossible angles, the sound of broken bones ringing through the apartment.

"Jeff," Abed said in amazement as he pointed to Annie. Jeff looked on in horror as more bones in Annie's body seemed to break. But every time one broke it seemed to repair and reshape itself. As her shirt and pants ripped apart Jeff saw that her spine actually seemed longer than any human vertebra should be, with an extra appendage forming just above her butt. And her hands and feet were reshaping in front of his eyes, becoming paws as claws took the place of her finger and toe nails.

Jeff backed up in unexplainable terror as Annie's human nudity disappeared, replaced instead with a complete covering of shiny dark fur. Her screams morphed into feral growls as her entire face stretched and lengthened. She bit down into her lower lip, drawing blood as her teeth lengthened into sharp fangs, howling as her transformation became complete. Jeff and Abed looked on in amazement as instead of seeing Annie, they were now seeing a large wolf in her place.

With a snarl the wolf charged at the two men. Abed pulled Jeff out of the way as Annie skidded into the kitchen, crashing against the refrigerator. She was up in a flash and leapt over the counter, looking at each of them in confusion.

"Abed!" Jeff yelled as the younger man ran into the blanket fort. In desperation he grabbed the Raiders model and threw it at Annie. It shattered upon contact, seeming to have no effect. As the wolf crouched Jeff noticed with amazement that he was looking at the same wolf that had been at the hospital last night. His suspicions were confirmed as he realized the animal not only had the same blue eyes as the creature he'd previously seen, but that they were indeed Annie's eyes.

"Hey!" Abed yelled as he reappeared from the fort, brandishing his Indiana Jones whip. He cracked the whip in the air, causing the wolf to growl and snap its jaws. Abed cracked the whip once more, this time just in front of her. Annie skidded backwards, looking at the men with a purely predatory expression.

"Hey guys," Troy said as he opened the front door and walked in. "They were out of Swiss cheese, so I got, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"

The wolf turned around and leapt at Troy, ready to tear his throat out. Before he could react he was shoved to the ground by Rich, who'd seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Rich pulled a gun out from his trench coat and shot at Annie, grazing her shoulder. She howled in pain as Rich pointed the gun at her. But just as he pulled the trigger Jeff tackled him to the ground. The shot ricocheted to the ground as the wolf jumped out of the apartment and ran down the hall.

"What the hell are you doing, you let her get away!"

"You tried to kill her!" Jeff yelled as he and Rich ran after her.

"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Troy cried as he and Abed ran after the two other men.

The four of them ran down the hallway, seeing the wolf slam into the stairwell door. The wooden door splintered as Annie tore through it and ran down the stairs. As they reach the stairwell Troy looked around, seeing they were one person short. "Where's Abed?" They looked around just in time to see the door to the other stairwell close. Troy ran after Abed as Jeff and Rich ran down the first stairwell.

As they got to the lobby (which thankfully was deserted) they saw Abed yelling and waving his arms at Annie. She charged at him as he flung the basement door open and raced down the stairs. Troy appeared just as the three of them followed Abed and Annie down to the basement.

They looked around as Abed ran to a storage closet, with Annie hot on his trail. He flung the door opened and leaped out of the way just as Annie crashed headfirst into the closet. With a savage snarl she leapt up as Abed slammed the heavy metal door shut. The four men pushed against the door as Annie threw herself repeatedly against it.

"Let go of the door!" Rich yelled.

"Are you insane?!" Jeff yelled back.

"Just do it!"

The three men let go as Rich inched it open and threw a bomb into the room. He slammed it shut just as an explosion was heard, followed by the horrible sound of an animal in pain. As Jeff instinctively went to check on Annie, Rich pushed him aside and locked the door before jamming a nearby chair under the door handle. "That should hopefully hold her off."

"What was that?" Abed asked fairly calmly.

"Wolfsbane and liquefied silver. Unless it was a direct hit, it shouldn't kill her."

"What's going on?" Troy asked. "Why is there another wolf here?"

"Troy," Rich said gently. "This is going to be hard for you to accept, but that wolf is Annie. She's been turned into a werewolf."

He stared at Rich before letting out a nervous laugh. "Oh, very funny. Good one guys." His laughter died down though when he saw the grim looks on each of their faces. "Guys, it's a joke, right? I mean, that thing can't be…"

"It's true," Abed said simply. "Jeff and I saw her transform before our eyes. She's a werewolf."

Troy leaned again a nearby chair in shock as Jeff looked at the door, trying to come to grips with this earth shattering revelation. "How is this possible?"

"It would seem Annie was attacked by the werewolf I was chasing last night. I'd hoped I could take it down before it hurt anyone. But she was attacked, and is now infected," Rich explained.

"But if she's a werewolf, why did she turn tonight and yesterday?" Abed asked Rich. "The full moon isn't until tomorrow. Though on Buffy werewolves turned over the course of three days .

"A werewolf's transformation isn't strictly tied to the full moon. It occurs during a five day cycle: the two nights preceding the full moon, the two nights following it, and the night of. Given her transformation last night, we're in day two of this cycle."

"How do you know all of this?" Jeff asked Rich.

"My family is descended from a long line of werewolf hunters. We're sworn to protect people from the abominations, and do what is necessary to eliminate the threat." He sighed deeply as he pulled out a gun.

"What are you doing?" Troy cried.

"I'm stopping the threat and putting her out of her misery."

"You can't…its Annie!" Jeff yelled.

"That thing in there is no longer Annie. She's a monster that will rip your throat out if you give her half a chance," Rich told him seriously.

"Maybe there's a way we can save her," Abed asked.

"There's nothing that can be done Abed. The best thing we can do is to kill her while she's still weak from the wolfsbane."

Rich started to remove the chair when Jeff grabbed him and slammed the doctor up against the wall. "You're not doing anything to her."

"Let go of me Jeff! This is the only way!"

"NO! I'm not letting you just kill Annie like this. There has to be another way." He let go of the doctor as he backed up and pressed himself against the door. A moment later Troy and Abed went over and stood on either side of Jeff, the three of them forming a human shield.

Rich raised his gun and pointed all of them, who stared down the barrel determinedly. They stood there in their stand off before Rich lowered his gun and grabbed a chair before sitting down in it. "Get comfortable men, because this is going to be a long night."

The four of them stayed in the basement all night, guarding over the door. After a few hours they heard Annie stirring in the closet. They tried to block out her cries of rage as she howled and threw herself against the door. The door shook from her weight, but held. Troy and Abed kept looking at each other, not able to believe that this was happening. And Jeff blinked back the anguish he was feeling, hating that she was behind that door alone and trying to make sense over what was happening.

And all the while Rich watched the door like a hawk, hating that these fools were just dragging out the inevitable. Because whether they could accept it or not, Annie Edison was now a dangerous animal. One that had to be put down.


	3. Chapter 3

It had to have been one of the longest nights the three of them had ever encountered. Hour after hour the minutes dragged by as they heard Annie snarl and throw herself against the storage room door. They wanted to check on her, but knew it was safer to stay out and simply hope she was all right. Plus they were afraid if they did open the door Rich would throw another bomb inside or else try and shoot her.

No one said a word as they sat in their positions, Abed, Troy and Jeff sitting leaned against the door and Rich in a chair a few feet across from them. They simply stared at each other, sizing each of them up. Jeff had always hated Rich, but now he felt a rage towards the doctor that bordered on homicidal. And Troy and Abed were looking at Rich as if they were only now really seeing him for the first time.

_Those stupid fools_, Rich thought as he held his gun by his side in case Annie managed to get out of the closet. They were fooling themselves if they thought this would end any other way. They had to realize that the Annie they knew was gone. And that the only course of action available was to kill her to prevent her from spreading the evil that was now inside of her.

After a long time Troy and Abed both fell asleep, and eventually even Rich dozed off. But Jeff made sure he was awake all night. He couldn't sleep with Annie wailing behind him. But he also kept himself awake because of Rich. He didn't trust the doctor, and feared if he let his guard down Rich would try and kill Annie.

After what felt like forever, Rich stirred as the alarm on his watch went off. "What's that for?" Jeff asked hoarsely.

"It's set for sunrise, which means its morning." Jeff nudged Troy and Abed awake as Rich approached the door and listened to the silence Jeff was just now realizing. "I'd give it a couple minutes to be sure, but she should have turned back by now."

"What happens now?" Troy asked.

"You know what happens now," Rich grimly responded. "The only thing that can be done is for Annie to be shot through her heart with a silver bullet."

"No," Jeff said. "There has to be another way."

"Sure there is. Cut her head off, rip her heart out, run a silver knife through her chest. If you inject her with enough wolfsbane it'll successfully poison her."

"I meant not killing her. There has to be a way to cure her."

"I'm sorry everyone, but there isn't a way to cure werewolfism. Once you're turned you're cursed to be a monster until you die. There's nothing that can be done."

Jeff and Troy looked at Abed for help, but he simply shook his head. "There aren't a lot of movie instances where a werewolf reverses their condition. Most times it ends with them being killed."

"He's right, there's nothing that can be done," Rich repeated. "I'll give you today so you all can say goodbye and she can put her affairs in order. But I'm returning just before sunset, and I will take her down. And if anyone tries to get in my way, I'll have no choice but to take you down too. Goodbye." With that Rich walked out of the basement. Jeff almost went after him, but instead decided to check on Annie.

He un-wedged the chair from the handle and slowly pushed the door open, which had been bent from her constant banging against it. Annie was lying naked on her side, having turned back to her normal human form. There were grimy smudges on her body, but otherwise she appeared fine. Jeff spotted a blanket on a shelf and draped it over her as Troy and Abed made their way inside. "I was hoping this was just an elaborate joke," Troy said softly.

"It's not," Abed said as Jeff bend down and gently shook Annie's shoulder. "Though for someone who usually has one foot out of reality, this is unbelievable even for me."

"Annie, Annie wake up."

Annie sighed as she opened her eyes sleepily. As she came to her senses she gasped in confusion and fear, looking all around her. "Where am I? What's going on?"

"You're safe. You're in the storage unit in the basement of your apartment," Jeff told her.

She pulled the blanket tightly around her as she realized she wasn't wearing anything. "Why am I in the basement? And where are my clothes?"

"You don't remember anything about last night?" Abed asked her.

"The last thing I remember was arguing with Jeff in our living room and then…" She gasped as fractured memories came swirling back to her. She remembered falling to the ground, her body feeling like it was on fire. She remembered horrible pain, like every one of her nerve endings was being stabbed. She held herself as the memory of her bones breaking and the thought of death and carnage filled her mind.

"What…what…" Annie whispered as she gasped for breath.

"Annie, breathe, okay? Take deep breaths," Troy said in a soothing voice as he knelt beside her. She shook her head as she fought to gain control of herself. "Breathe. Breathe. That's good. Breathe, breathe."

"I'm not a dog Troy," she screamed at him. "Stop treating me like one!"

"I wasn't treating you like a…" He almost involuntarily chuckled at that visual, but stopped so he didn't upset Annie. "Let's just get you upstairs and we'll go from there, okay?"

She sighed in annoyance before standing up, keeping the blanket tightly wrapped around her. "Alright."

Once they were back in the apartment Annie went to the bathroom to take a shower. She turned the water on to just under blistering hot before getting under the spray. She pressed her palms against the tile wall as she tried to make sense of the fractured visuals that were swirling in her head.

"Hello beautiful." She turned around as a naked Jeff pulled back the shower curtain and stepped into the tub. "Geez it's hot. Though that shouldn't be surprising since you're here."

"You should leave," she said, her voice full of lust as her eyes ran up and down his body.

"Do you want me to?"

"No," she said as she kissed him hungrily. She moaned loudly as Jeff pushed her against the wall and gently palmed her breasts. "Harder," she hissed, gasping as he roughly pinched her nipples. She worked her lips down to his neck, nibbling the skin just above the main artery.

"Careful, you'll leave a hicky," Jeff groaned. "Hey, not so hard. Ouch. Stop it, that hurts!" He tried to push Annie away, but she grabbed onto him with a vice like grip. Jeff's cries became more frantic as Annie bit down and ripped his throat open, his blood bathing her in red. As the life left Jeff's eyes Annie tore the flesh from his wound and gleefully swallowed the ragged chunks.

"Annie!" Abed called out from behind the bathroom door.

Annie gasped in fright as she was pulled back to reality. She looked around franticly, but didn't see Jeff or anyone else in the shower with her. It had all just been a terrible daydream. "Yeah?"

"You've been in there a while. We just wanted to make sure you're alright."

"I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute," she yelled. She shook her head as the nightmare hung fresh in her head. She wasn't sure what disturbed her more; the fact that she had even imagined that inhuman scenario, or that a part of her wished that it actually happened.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"This is complete bullshit!" Annie yelled as she pulled at the sleeve of her shirt. "I'm a werewolf. And Rich is a werewolf hunter who wants to kill me. That's the best you can come up with?"

"Jeff and I saw you turn last night in front of our eyes," Abed told her.

"You live in an imaginary world Abed. Why should anyone believe anything you say?"

"Hey," Troy said angrily. "Don't talk to him like that."

"Why, you're upset that I insulted your boyfriend? Is that why you broke up with Britta, so you two can finally be together?"

Troy stared at Annie, shocked at the words that were coming out of her mouth. "Why are you acting like this?"

"I'm just upset that you guys are making stuff up to explain why I blacked out. I probably have rabies or something and that's why I'm acting like this," Annie said with fake nonchalance. She knew there was something wrong with her, and that was why she was flinging out insults. But whenever she felt bad and was about to apologize, something inside of her wouldn't allow it.

Jeff looked at Annie, having barely said anything since Abed started explaining what was going on. This was more than just becoming a werewolf (which was extraordinary in and of itself). She was becoming a completely different person before their eyes, and he was not going to just sit there while his Annie was replaced by this monster.

"I've got to go," Jeff said as he got up.

"Where are you going?" Troy asked.

"I'm going to pay the good doctor a house call. Keep an eye on her and don't let her leave." He looked at Annie, wanting to say so much to her, but all he got out was, "I'll be back."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich opened his door, not surprised in the least by who was behind it. "I figured you would stop by." Though he didn't expect Jeff to grab him and shove him up against the wall. "Hey, is this really necessary?"

"What's happening to her?"

"I assume you mean Annie." He pushed Jeff back and closed the door before sitting down in the living room. "I've already told you what's happening to her."

"I don't mean her changing into a wolf. She's not acting like herself. She's mean and insulting her friends."

"You mean she's becoming more aggressive and dominating?" He chuckled darkly before frowning at the grim news he had to give. "Annie's transition isn't simply limited to her nightly transformations. The curse affects all parts of her as a person, causing her to become cruel and sadistic. She's going to become violent and will enjoy causing pain and picking on those she sees as weaker than herself. Which considering what she is, is essentially all of humanity." His frowned deepened as he looked at Jeff with deep regret. "When I said Annie was now a monster, I wasn't just talking about her physical changes. The Annie we knew is gone. She's going to become a sadist, a psychopath. It's what happens to all werewolves. It's in their blood. And the longer she's alive the worse she'll get. I've seen weres so far gone that they won't even wait until the full moon. They'll hunt and eat people when they're still human. You wouldn't believe which of history's most notorious serial killers were actually werewolves."

Jeff's knees buckled as he sat down, unwilling to accept what he was hearing. Annie was a force of good, who was supposed to make the world a better place. And now hearing that she was going to be worse than the worst scum he used to represent was unbearable. "Maybe she can learn to fight it. She's Annie."

"It doesn't matter who you were as a human, the result is always the same. And given her obsessive personality and her history with addiction, I expect she'll end up being worse than most werewolves," Rich said.

In a flash Jeff stormed over and grabbed Rich by his shirt. "I never liked you Rich. So I don't need much of a reason to throttle you. But if you don't help me save her I will personally make sure she attacks you first. There has to be a way to stop this."

"There isn't Jeff. Believe me, once someone's turned they're changed forever. Even the loophole is a fools-."

"What," Jeff said desperately. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Forget it."

Jeff pulled Rich closer, his face inches from Rich's. "Tell me what you know? Is there a cure?"

Without warning Rich grabbed Jeff's shoulder, pushing on a pressure point until Jeff let go. He rubbed his shoulder as the doctor shook his head grimly. "There's technically a way to reverse the curse, but it's impossible to do. When a person is first bitten they're still in transition. It's not permanent until they've taken a human life within their first moon cycle. So if she can go a full five day moon cycle without killing someone as a wolf, then the curse will be broken."

For a moment Jeff was hopeful before it came crashing down. He could account for last night, but her first night as a wolf she had been out on her own for hours. They had no idea if she had taken a life that night or not. "Is there a way to know if she's killed someone or not? Is there a difference in how she'd look if it's permanent?"

"The only difference between a permanent wolf and one in transition is their eyes. When they're in transition they have their human eye color when they turn. But once they kill someone their eyes become yellow."

"Are you sure. Are you sure about that?" he asked desperately.

"Yes, I'm sure. I've spend my whole life hunting these beasts. I'm an expert."

Jeff let out a hopeful laugh at what he was hearing. "She had blue eyes. When she turned last night her eyes were blue. So if we just keep her from going out and killing anyone for the next three nights, she'll be cured."

"Yes, in theory that's what has to happen. But it won't work. She's going to be driven to make the transformation permanent. She'll do whatever she has to until she takes a life. It's beyond her control."

"It's Annie!" Jeff yelled. "She's already been to Hell and back and come out stronger. She can fight this!"

"That's what I thought when my brother was turned!" Rich yelled, matching Jeff's rage. "We were hunting a werewolf at an amusement park and he got bitten. He kept himself locked up for days, determined to beat it. But it took him over. And on the last day he broke out and went to a crowded mall just before sunset. I've seen a lot of carnage, but that…" He cringed as the memory of that horrible scene came back to him. "My brother was the strongest person I've ever known, and in the end he still became a beast I had to take down. So what hope does a high strung junkie have of beating it?"

Jeff charged over and punched Rich square in the face. The doctor staggered back as Jeff continued to beat him. "Don't you _ever_ talk about Annie like that you bastard!" He got a few more punches in before Rich cracked Jeff in the jaw with an uppercut.

"You're angry, so I'll give you that. But I meant what I said before. I'm going to kill her tonight before she does any more damage. And if you or anyone tries to stop me, I'll kill them to. Now please get out of my home before I decide to stop you right now."

Jeff rubbed his face as he glared at Rich with malice. "I swear that if you try and do anything to Annie, I'll destroy you."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

After Jeff has gotten back from seeing Rich he called Shirley, Britta and Pierce and had them come over to Casa AnnTroBed to explain what was going on. As expected, convincing them didn't exactly go smoothly.

"Oh come on Winger, you really expect us to believe this malarkey?" Pierce exclaimed.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with Pierce, but he's right. You guys are just pulling one over on us," Shirley said.

"We're not kidding." Jeff told them. "Everything we told you is true."

"You mean where Annie's a werewolf, and we have to keep her locked up for three nights to break the curse and keep Rich the werewolf hunter from killing her? Oh no, that sounds _completely_ plausible," Britta sarcastically exclaimed.

"I saw her turn. It's true," Abed said.

Shirley fidgeted uncomfortably as she took hold of her cross. "It just can't be true."

"Oh, but worshipping a guy who rose from the dead after being killed, that's understandable," Annie said with cruel sarcasm.

Shirley looked at Annie in the back of the room, grimly surprised that the girl would say something like that. "I know you've been through a lot with your attack, so I'm going to forgive you for saying that."

"See Shirley? The Annie we know would never say something like that," Troy told her.

"I'm right here Troy. You don't have to talk about me like I'm not in the room!" Annie yelled as she continued to stretch out her shirt sleeve.

"He's just trying to help Annie," Britta said.

"Like you try and help people Britta? I guarantee once you become a therapist, the state's suicide rate is going to quadruple."

Britta stared at Annie, too surprised at what she said to even go on a well thought out rant.

"Enough of this!" Jeff yelled. "Sitting here arguing isn't going to do anything. We have to act now. First we have to find a place Annie can stay when she changes that she won't be able to get out of. Somewhere Rich won't be able to find."

"We can use my dad's falafel store," Abed said. "The basement had a fenced off section that would hold her. And he's out of town on business so it's deserted."

"Okay," Jeff said. "That could work."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"You sure this is going to work Abed?" Troy asked as they got out of the car, squinting in the fading sunlight. "You're sure it will hold her?"

"My dad made sure no one could steal his supplies. It's more secure than the storage closet was and Annie couldn't get out of that."

Abed waited until everyone got out of their cars before leading them to the basement entrance and bringing them inside. He turned on the light and brought them to the storage cage. It was fenced off with a heavy mesh medal, with four layers welded together and three heavy locks for the cage door.

"Okay, this should do," Jeff said as Abed opened the door. "Annie."

"I'm not getting in there. I came here just to humor you guys, but I'm not getting in a cage. I'm not a werewolf."

"And how would you explain why you don't remember last night?" Jeff asked. "Or why you've been such a bitch to everyone today?"

"Don't you call me a bitch, you self-centered, daddy issues-." Before she could finish Jeff grabbed her, with Troy and Abed taking hold of her a moment later. Despite her thrashing and Shirley and Britta's protests they managed to throw her into the cage and lock the door.

"YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO BE SO SORRY YOU DID THIS!"

"Okay, this had gone way to far," Britta said. "You can officially end the worst joke ever."

"Britta," Jeff said as he looked at his watch. "It's less than a half an hour until the sun sets. If Annie _doesn't _change you have my permission to psycho analyze me until I'm sixty."

"Then get ready for therapy, Britta style."

They looked at Annie uncomfortably as she paced and yelled curses at them. While that was happening Abed set up a video camera to record everything in the cage. "You might want to take your clothes off Annie, so they're not destroyed when you change."

"I'm not giving you a free peep show you perverted weirdo."

Abed ignored Annie's comment as he finished setting up, even if he didn't like seeing Annie act like this. Once it was done he joined the others who waited as the minutes to sunset ticked by.

"And five, four, three, two, one," Jeff counted down as the moment finally arrived. They all looked at Annie, but nothing happened.

"I told you nothing was going to happen. Now let me out before-." She was silent for a moment as she swayed on her feet before she fell to her hands and knees, screaming in pain.

"Get her out of there guys," Pierce yelled. "She's in pain."

"This is still a joke. Just an elaborate joke," Britta said in a scared voice.

They looked on as Annie screamed, clearly hearing the sound of bones breaking. She ripped her clothes apart as her hands became clawed paws and her body was covered in fur. Her screams morphed into animal growls as the transformation became complete, and Annie's human body was replaced by a wolf.

"Oh my Lord," Shirley said in fear as she held the cross around her neck.

They all stared at her in shock as Annie twitched her tail before letting out a spine tingling howl.


	4. Chapter 4

If Jeff thought the previous night had been long, it was nothing compared to tonight. At least then they only had to endure hearing Annie snarl and act like a wild animal. This time they had an unobstructed front row view to the awful spectacle.

It was nerve wracking seeing her throw herself at the fence to try and break through it over and over. Each time she was thrown back she'd leap up and immediately try again. The fence shook ominously from her abuse, but it held up.

After she had turned Abed suggested that they all stay and stand guard to make sure she stayed put until morning. Shirley told them she had to get home, simply stating that she just couldn't stand seeing Annie in this condition. Pierce stayed for a few hours, but after the seventh time he nodded off and the twelve stripper/cage match story he told them, they insisted he go home for the night.

Jeff, Troy, Abed and Britta stayed all night, taking turns watching Annie so each of them could get some sleep. Jeff wanted to keep watch all night, but he was exhausted after being up for over 48 hours straight, though in the end he didn't get that much sleep. Each time he closed his eyes he dreamed that Annie was either ripping someone apart, or being killed by Rich.

He was having a particularly horrid dream when he was nudged awake by Abed. "What? Is everything all right?"

"I need to talk to you."

Jeff got up from the sleeping bag Abed had laid out for him and followed the younger man. He glanced at Britta and Troy, who were guarding Annie, before they were at a secluded section. "What is it?"

"The three of us were talking about Annie's condition. And we don't think it's a good idea for her to leave once she turns back at sunrise."

"Wait, what?"

"When she turns back into Annie and isn't a werewolf, she shouldn't leave the holding cage."

"I got that. But why shouldn't she leave."

"We don't think we'll be able to get her back in. She was already reluctant to get in there yesterday. If we let her out at dawn she might run away. And you said Rich told you she's going to want to kill someone to have the change permanent."

Jeff was about to object when he remembered his conversation with Rich, particularly the part about his brother breaking out so he could kill someone when he turned. Although this would make things harder on everyone, it was the best way to make sure she didn't become a werewolf permanently.

"Alright. We'll have to get her clothes and food and stuff. And we'll have to come up with a rotation for all of us to watch her.

"Got it. I'm going to go to our place to get some stuff. Then I have to stop at Pierce's to get a gun."

"Wait, why do we need a gun?"

"So we can keep her from running out when we give her supplies."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"It just seems un-American, giving you a gun," Pierce said to Abed.

"PIERCE!" all of them (except Abed) yelled at him.

"Okay, okay. Sorry." He yawned loudly as he handed Abed his revolver. "Last time I was up this early was when we were taking on those Germans."

"You didn't have to come," Britta told him.

"Hey, I care about Annie too. I want to be here to help her."

"Everything's all ready," Abed said. "How long until sunrise?"

"Should be any minute," Troy said as he looked at his watch.

They all waited, watching the wolf pace back and forth on all fours, until she howled loudly. Her howling morphed into human screams as her body changed and her fur retracted back into her body. She collapsed as she fully turned back into human Annie.

They discreetly looked away from her as she slowly stirred and opened her eyes. "What's happening…" She looked all around her, seeing she was still in her cage, except now without any clothes on. "What the hell is going on?" She got to her feet, to lost in her anger to care that she didn't have anything on. "Why am I still in here?"

"Annie-" Jeff said before she cut him off.

"You fucking assholes are going to be so sorry! Let me out of here!"

"We can't Annie," Troy sadly told her. "We have to keep you here until the curse is broken. It's for your own good."

"What, that stupid werewolf story? You're still going with this?"

Abed approached the cage door, aiming the gun in Annie's direction. "Back up until you're against the wall over there."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she hissed as she reluctantly backed up.

Once she was against the wall Abed unlocked the locks and opened the door. He placed a duffle bag and a bucket just inside before closing and relocking the door. "There's clothes in there for you, along with food, water, some books, and toilet paper." He pointed to a section of the cage they had hung sheets up against the mesh walls. "That's to give you some privacy when you have to change or go to the bathroom."

Annie glanced at the bucket as she got what its intended use was for. "This is beyond sick. You expect me to go in a bucket because… I'm not a fucking werewolf, all right!" She shook her head as she pulled out underwear, gym shorts and an old t-shirt and started putting them on. "You can't keep me in here because everyone's gone crazy."

As Annie got dressed Abed brought his lap top over and plugged in the video camera he'd set up the night before. "It might help if you watched this."

Annie reluctantly looked at the screen as she saw herself from the previous night, standing in the cage screaming. She frowned as she watched her drop to the ground, then gasped as she watched herself painfully turn into a honest to God wolf. "What…this is a joke, right? You used a computer program to make this, right?"

"It's not a joke Annie," Troy grimly said.

"We all watched you turn last night," Britta established.

Annie looked at Pierce and Jeff, but their faces told her this was true. Her body shook as she thought about the nightly blackouts, her desire to eat raw flesh, her body feeling like it was on fire. And just like that, she finally accepted that what they were saying was true; that she was indeed a werewolf.

"So it's true. I'm a…" As they watched her they all became unnerved as she unexpectedly started laughing. "That's…wow." She smiled as she looked at all of them. "Okay, I believe you guys. You can let me out now."

"Annie, we can't do that," Britta said.

"Sure you can. I know I acted badly before. But that was because I didn't know what was going on. Now I can help you guys figure out how to cure me."

"We already know how to cure you," Abed told her. "According to Rich if a werewolf doesn't kill someone during a five day cycle the curse is broken. So if you don't kill anyone within the next two nights you'll be cured.

"See, I just have to stay in here at night. But I can live my life during the day." Her eyes watered as she gave Jeff the Disney eyes to end all Disney eyes. "Jeff, please. Don't let them keep me in here."

Jeff swallowed the lump in his throat as he looked at her. But even if her Disney look was his kryptonite, he knew they had to keep her under lockdown. "I'm sorry Annie, but it's for your own good."

She stood there for a moment before she jumped on the fence, shaking it in rage. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT OF HERE!" She punched the cage, screaming curses at everyone. Pierce, Troy and Britta looked away, unable to see Annie like this. Silent tears formed in Jeff's eyes as he saw the lovable Annie he knew become replaced by a crazy person.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

It was unanimously agreed upon that at least one or two people would be there guarding Annie at all times. The six of them (Shirley arrived not long after sunrise) worked out a shift schedule so people could still go to their classes. Since Jeff had already taken two days off of work he automatically got the last few hours before sunset shift so he didn't miss another day. The rest of them worked out when someone could be there based on when they were off from class.

Once everything was worked out everyone left except for Shirley, who was watching Annie until 10 a.m. She rolled her shoulders uncomfortably, not liking the way Annie was leaning against the bars staring at her. "So, Annie, is there anything you need so you're more comfortable?"

"You're one to talk about making people comfortable. You're constantly shoving your religion down everyone's throat. How do you think that makes people feel?"

"I'm just trying to help people," Shirley said simply.

"Why, because you're automatically right? Because your religion is automatically the _right_ path?" She smiled a sly side smile, enjoying how she was getting under Shirley's skin. "What makes your belief system automatically the right path? Have you ever wondered if you're wrong and Judaism is the right path? Or Islam? Or what about atheism? That's got to be a scary thought for someone who'd working to get into heaven, the thought that in the end there is no afterlife and after you take your final breath you'll just fade out of existence," she said with an even nastier smile.

"I don't want to talk about this," Shirley said uncomfortably.

"Okay. Let's talk about how your religion is going to leave you alone and friendless."

"What?" Shirley said in shock.

"Well, not your religion per say. Just how you constantly push it on everyone. You've tried to baptize me and Abed against our wills. You're constantly saying Britta has no morals because she doesn't believe there is a God. Everyone's sick of you trying to force them into believing what you believe. And eventually we won't be able to take it anymore and will leave you. But you'll be fine, right. You'll still have _Jesus_."

Shirley stormed over to the cage, stopping just inches from the mesh wiring. "You're an evil creature who's going to rot in Hell," she said in a cold voice barely above a whisper.

"How very Christian of you, damning your friend to Hell."

"I wasn't talking about Annie. I mean the vile thing that's taken over that sweet lovely girl and has made her this evil creature."

"And how do you know this isn't the real Annie?" she asked. "How do you know I'm not just finally saying what I've thought all along?"

"I know Annie. And this isn't her." With that Shirley turned around and walked across the room. Once she was far enough away she held her hand over her mouth, shaking from the evil things that had come out of Annie's mouth.

"Two more days," she said softly. "Just two more days and she'll be back with us."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"How is she?" Troy asked as he came down to the basement.

"Thank God you're here," Shirley said as she quickly grabbed her bag. "Don't talk to her. That thing in there, that isn't Annie. And whatever it is, it's bad." With that she quickly bolted upstairs, never more grateful to have a morning class.

Troy walked over to the storage cage, seeing Annie leaning against the mesh wire. "Annie?" He frowned as he watched her look back at him blankly. "You in there?"

"Where else would I be? I'm locked in a cage." She sighed as she paced around. "I'm bored."

"Abed gave you some books to read."

"Abed, Abed. Must we always do what Abed says we should do? I mean, you must be sick of it, always backing down and letting him walk all over you."

"Abed doesn't walk all over me. I'm my own person."

"Right, you're your own person," she told him sarcastically. "When's that? When you're attached to Abed's hip? When you run away from careers opportunities like football scholarships and fixing air conditioners? Face it; you just drift through life, latching onto whatever is the simplest option. No wonder you and Britta ended up together. Oh right," she said with a nasty smile. "You guys broke up. Even a relationship with a useless slacker was too much for Troy Barnes to handle."

Troy swallowed, trying to resist the urge to yell at her. "This is just the werewolf talking. You're just acting like this because you're infected."

"Really? Is that what you think?"

"Yes. I know you Annie. And this isn't you."

"How do you know that? You never knew anything about me before Greendale. You stood by while I was spiraling down on drugs. You didn't even know who I was until I reminded you at our first study meeting."

I know," he said softly. "I was a jerk to you in high school. But I'm not that guy anymore. I know you're in trouble, and I'm here to help you."

She glared at him when her eyes suddenly widened and she dropped to the ground. Troy gasped in fright as she started shaking violently. "Annie!"

She flopped around like she was having a seizure. Troy quickly worked to unlock the door. As soon as he opened it, Annie leapt up and charged at the door. Troy quickly pulled it closed, closing it on Annie's arms. He inched it open and pushed her back before closing it and quickly relocking it. He looked at her, shocked at how devious and desperate Annie had become.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Don't even try to stage any breakouts," Britta said as she watched Annie in the cage. "Troy told me about your little jail break attempt and I know what to expect."

Annie looked at Britta before she groaned uncomfortably. "Listen Britta, can I ask you for a favor? Do you have any tampons? It's just…it's that time of the month and I need one."

"Yeah…I have some," Britta said uncertainly.

"Well, can you give me one? Come on, you can't expect me to just sit here for days like this. You don't even have to open the door. Just slide it through the fence. Help a woman out."

"Alright." Britta went over to her bag and got a tampon out. She started poking it through the fence when Annie leapt over and grabbed her finger in a death grip. "OW!"

"Let me out right now, or you lose a finger."

"Annie, please-."

"DO IT!"

In her rage Annie didn't notice Britta pull a knife out of her pocket and thrust it through a mesh hole. She only nicked her with the tip, but it was enough to cause Annie to let go in surprise. Britta backed away from the cage as Annie laughed cruelly. "Nice one. But I am going to get out of here. And when I do, you guys are going to be my first meal once the sun sets."

"Britta!" She looked over as Abed came into the room. "My afternoon class was canceled."

"Don't go near her Abed. She'll do anything to get out."

Abed looked at Britta, seeing the bruise on her finger. "She tried to force you to let her out."

"Yeah. Be careful. She'll do or say anything."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich groaned as he rubbed his neck. He was in pain after sleeping in his car. And he was mad that this was dragging out.

After checking to see if they were keeping her in the apartment storage closet Rich drove around, listening to his police radio to try and pick up on any animal attacks. But he didn't hear anything all night. That meant the group must have hidden Annie somewhere to try and keep her from killing someone as a werewolf.

_You had a stay of execution last night_, he thought. _But I'm going to find you tonight, and I'm going to kill you. _

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"You can't get to me," Pierce said as he watched Annie. "The others may have been duped, but I've had laser lotus training on mind manipulation. Your crafty mind games won't work on me."

Annie didn't say a word as she continued to simply watch him. Pierce looked back at her, expecting her to say something. "Well, aren't you going to say anything to me? Try and get in my mind?" He grew uneasy as she simply stared at him. "Oh, I get it, you think I'm not worth talking to. You try and manipulate all the others to let you out, but Pierce isn't worth your time." His face grew angry as Annie made no indication whatsoever. "Fine, ignore me them! I'm used to it. I thought you were better than everyone else, but I guess I was wrong."

He paced back and forth, becoming more and more irritated at Annie saying nothing to him. "Come on, say something. Big boobs, big boobs. Money, money, money." He walked over to her in extreme irritation. "If you think you can just ignore me then-."

"Pierce." He stopped within a few inches from her cage as Abed approached him. "She's ignoring you so you'll come over. And then she'll grab you and try and force you to let her out."

"Oh. Right, I knew that. Nice try!" he said to Annie before walking away.

"Buzz kill," she said to Abed in a low voice. "Always have to have your way. The world doesn't function right if Abed doesn't always get his way."

"We're here to help you Annie."

"That's what everyone says. But I don't need any help. You know that, right Abed. People have always told you how to act, not understanding what you need to actually get better. Has that ever actually helped you?"

"That supposed to rattle me?" he asked, his voice taking on an unclipped British accent.

"Well, that's new," she said. "I'm guessing, you're following a movie, where you're interrogating a locked up prisoner."

"You've found a vulnerability, exploited it. Well done. Can we move on?" he said to her.

"Come on, let me guess this?" she said with excitement. "It can't be _Silence of the Lambs_, because Jodie Foster isn't British." She rubbed her chin before gasping in recognition. "I got it. You're channeling Wesley, from _Angel_. So, that would make me Angelus, when they brought him out and interrogated him in the fourth season." She laughed harshly as she shook her head. "It must be sad to always retreat into movies and television whenever a situation comes up that makes you uncomfortable. Guess you don't have what it takes to handle the real world."

"Yet you're locked in a cage, and I'm out here."

"Come on Abed, be yourself. Do you really have to hide behind fictional characters to deal with this?"

"It's easier talking to you as someone else when you're like this," he said, going back to his own voice. Though he said it without infliction, his eyes clearly showed how much he hated seeing Annie like this.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Abed looked around as Jeff made his way into the room. "Weren't you coming by an hour ago?"

"I got held up at work. I texted you that I would be little late."

"I left my phone at my place."

Jeff nodded his head as he looked towards Annie. "How she been?" He frowned as Abed didn't say a word and just simply looked at Jeff. "That bad, hu?"

"It's your turn to watch her," he told Jeff as he handed Jeff the cage keys and walked away.

Jeff glanced over at Pierce, seeing him napping on the floor. "Guess it's just you and me."

"Goodie, my knight in shining armor." She scoffed as she looked at Jeff. "Though I shouldn't be surprised you put me in here. You've kept me caged ever since we met."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm an adult and you treat me like a child. I'd say that's _stunting_ who I should be"

"I don't…" He reluctantly paused as he realized there was a bit of truth there.

"Though that's not nearly as damaging as you constantly putting me down and making me feel worthless."

"I don't make you feel worthless."

"Really Jeff? What about when I told you I let Professor Cornwallis feel me up for a grade and no one reacted? That made me feel _valued_. Or, here's an oldie but goodie, all the mixed signals you've sent me since we've met. 'I'm too afraid to committee to how I feel, but I want you all to myself'. How do you think that makes me feel? I'm not a porcelain doll you can put away so no one touches me."

"Annie, you're locked in a cage to keep you from staying a werewolf. This isn't the time for a heart to heart."

"Classic Jeff. Always puts off any serious talk involving us." She smirked as she licked her fingers and slid them across her neck and down her shirt. "Though maybe you're right and we're past talking." She moaned as she caressed her breasts. "I'm right here. All you have to do is come get me."

Jeff swallowed as he watched Annie feel herself up. He'd be lying if he said there hadn't been nights when he'd imagined her when he was pleasuring himself. But as wrong as he usually felt about being with her, doing it like this would be a thousand times worse.

"Stop it." As she started sliding her hands down her shorts he kicked at the fence. "Stop it! This isn't you."

"Because I'm admitting I actually like sex? I thought you'd like proof I'm not a kid Jeff."

"This isn't Annie."

"Because I demand answers? Because I don't want to be locked up. Because I'm braver then you'll ever be because I'll actually admit I want you."

Jeff started taking a step closer when he saw that her eyes were drawn to the keys sticking out of his pants pocket. He scoffed as he took a few steps back. "You're good, I'll give you that. But you're not getting out of there until this curse is lifted."

"Don't you get it," she said. "I like feeling like this. Saying and doing whatever I want. Not caring about what others think about me."

"I did that for a long time Annie. It gets lonely. That's not how you should act to people who really care about you."

"And you really think you're one of those people?"

"Yes, I am. And before this is over, I'll prove it to you."

"Can't wait," she said sarcastically. She sat down on the floor and pulled her clothes off, moaning Jeff's name as she slipped two fingers inside of her. "Jeff…I want you." Jeff turned his back on her, doing everything possible to block out the fact that Annie was using his attraction to her to try and get him to go to her.


	5. Chapter 5

In many ways, it was almost a relief when the sun set and Annie turned back into a wolf. Even if they didn't like seeing her like this, at least she wasn't being intentionally cruel. In a sick way, seeing her as a wild animal that wanted to rip their throats out was easier to take then the verbal barbs she had thrown at them.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich sighed in frustration as he searched through Annie's apartment. He'd hoped he could find something that would tell him where her roommates were hiding her. Or even better, if one of the guys had been there so he could force them to take him to her.

At this point he had no idea where her study group was keeping Annie. He'd already tried each of their homes, the school, an abandoned warehouse across town. And every place was a dead end.

He yelled in frustration (not caring if he woke the neighbors at this late hour), when he saw the lit up screen of a cell phone on the counter. He picked it up, seeing there were two text messages. The first was from Jeff, simply saying he was running late. The second was from Abed's father:

_Abed. I'm meeting with a possible business client on Monday, so I won't be back until Tuesday. I need you to be at the store Monday afternoon so you can sign off on the chickpeas and fava bean delivery and put it in the supply cage. _

Rich smiled as it all suddenly clicked together. Abed's father was out of town, leaving his store empty. And the perfect place to hide a werewolf.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"How long until sunrise?" Troy asked.

"Twenty three minutes," Jeff said as he looked up from his phone.

Troy nodded his head as he looked over at Jeff. "That's a nice jacket by the way. Where'd you get it?"

"Oh, Fine Leather Emporium, off of route 6," Jeff said, glancing up at Shirley as she came downstairs from the store. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah, Andre was up for work and wanted to check up on me. Though he wouldn't stop asking when our house was going to be done being bug sprayed." (She had fabricated the story so her family would spend the next few days at Andre's parents and not be around until this thing was over.)

Just then Pierce woke up with a start. "I'm awake, I'm…, hey, where's my gun?"

"It's upstairs Pierce. I'll get it," Shirley said as she went to get it.

"Be careful with that thing," Pierce yelled as she left the room. "And try to ignore any impulses to rob-."

Britta looked over at Pierce, seeing he had fallen fast asleep. "That's a record even for… ouch! Something stung-."

Abed looked around in concern as Britta fell to the floor unconscious. "Something's wrong-."

Troy and Jeff had just enough time to see Abed drop to the ground when they were also hit with tranquilizer darts. They fell to the floor as Rich came in through the basement door entrance. "Sorry folks." He holstered his tranq gun and took out his regular one as he took the cage keys from Abed and walked to the cage. Annie snarled and licked her lips as Rich unlocked the first, and then second lock.

"Drop the keys and turn around."

Rich slowly turned about face as Shirley came downstairs pointing Pierce's gun at him. "Please put that thing away Shirley."

"Step away from the cage right now!"

"This has to happen. That thing needs to be destroyed."

"You're right Rich. And that abomination will be destroyed. By keeping Annie safe until after tomorrow morning."

"That's not good enough. The risk is too great."

"We've kept her contained for days. We just have to get through one more night!"

As the two of them argued neither noticed Jeff open his eyes. He felt his chest, realizing his jacket had stopped the dart from piercing his skin. He looked over at the cage, where Annie was throwing herself against the door. But with two of the three locks unlocked, the door was now severely shaking.

"LOOK OUT!" he yelled as Annie broke the final lock and crashed the door open. Rich whipped around and aimed his gun at Annie, but Jeff jumped up and tackled him to the ground. Annie looked at the two men before spotting most of her friends lying unconscious. She growled as she walked over to Abed, who was lying nearest to the cage.

"HEY, HEY!" Shirley yelled as she jumped up and down and waved her arms around. The wolf looked up and turned its attention towards Shirley. "That's right, come and get me!" With that Shirley bolted through the basement entrance. Annie raced after her, with Jeff and Rich following both of them.

As soon as they were out of the basement Jeff sucker punched Rich in the gut. "STAY DOWN!" he yelled as the doctor fell to the ground. He looked at Annie chasing Shirley and without thinking of the consequences ran towards them at a diagonal path.

Shirley ran faster then she'd ever run before. For a moment she thought she could keep out of Annie's reach. But she then crashed against a car, having run into it in her panic. She turned around as Annie leapt in the air, ready to rip her throat open. But as Shirley let out a terrified scream Jeff dove in front of her. He shielded Shirley as Annie landed on him, biting into his forearm. Franticly he punched Annie in the face with his good arm as she shook his other one in her mouth. He managed to land a direct blow right on her nose, causing her to let go and yelp in pain.

Her yelping grew worse as a gunshot ran through the rapidly lightening night sky. Jeff and Shirley looked at Annie, who was now limping with a bullet wound in her leg, then at Rich who was walking towards her with his firearm in front of him. Not caring that she had just tried to kill him Jeff jumped in front of Annie and shielded her from Rich. "Get away from her!"

Shirley screamed as Rich shot Jeff in the gut without so much as a warning. He charged at Annie as she ran to an open sewer grate. She leaped in headfirst, struggling to make it all the way through. Rich grabbed her by her tail and pulled hard as he tried to drag her out. Annie's howls of pain echoed throughout the sewer before she managed to kick Rich with her hind legs. Involuntarily he let go of her, cursing as she slipped through the grate.

Rich tried to follow, but was too broad shouldered to fit through. He ran off as Shirley knelt beside Jeff, pressing her palms against his gunshot wound. As the sun rose over the horizon she saw the bite wound on his arm, and gasped in horror as she realized exactly what it meant.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff opened his eyes, his body feeling like he'd been hit with a battering ram. He tried to move, but couldn't as he realized he was duct taped to a chair. "Wha…" He looked around, seeing the group looking at him gravely. "What's going on? Why am I tied up?"

"Jeff." He looked at Britta as she walked over to him. "I don't know how to say this to you, but you've been bitten."

"What?"

"We all saw the bite on your arm when Shirley brought you back here."

He looks at his arm, not seeing any mark on it. "There isn't any bite mark. How…" His eyes widened as it all came rushing back to him: throwing himself in front of Shirley and then Annie to save them, getting shot by Rich, and…dragging his arm out of Annie's mouth as she bit him. He slumped in his chair, completely defeated at the realization that he was now going to turn into a monster.

"Jeffrey," Shirley tearfully said as she came over to him. "I'm so sorry. If I hadn't made Annie chase me this never would have happened."

As soon as he heard her name Jeff picked his head up, seeing that she wasn't there in the room. "Where's Annie?"

"I um, I don't know," Shirley stammered nervously. "She dove into the sewer just as the sun was coming up."

"Me and Abed tried following her, but she was long gone by the time we got there," Troy told him.

"Alright, let me out of here."

"We can't do that," Abed told him. "We have to fix the cage so we-."

"I don't care!" he yelled. "This is the last chance Annie has to kill someone to keep the curse permanent. She could be killing someone right now! I'm not losing her!"

"We'll find her Jeff," Pierce said seriously.

"How? Does anyone know where she would go? Does anyone have any idea?" He hissed in rage before an idea came to him. "Rich. Rich might know where she is?"

"Jeff, it took him days to figure out where we were keeping Annie. He's not going to know where she is now," Britta said.

"Okay, I get it, it's a long shot. But it's the only play we have right now."

"Alright, we'll go to Rich and you'll-."

"Britta, please. It's Annie," he said desperately. "I have to find her. I can't lose her."

Britta's eyes widened as the look in Jeff's eyes revealed the true depth of his feelings. "You love her," she said so softly no one (even Jeff) heard her. She took a deep breath before pulling out her knife and cutting him free. "I must be crazy for doing this."

"What are you doing? He's a big gay monster now."

"PIERCE!" she hissed. "I know what I'm doing. And this is just until we find Annie," she said to Jeff as he got up. "We're locking you up once its sundown. And this knife is made of silver. You try anything and I'll stab you."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he said with a smirk. "But first I need you to go to your place and get a pair of handcuffs."

"I don't have any handcuffs," Britta said.

"Really, _you _don't have handcuffs," Jeff exclaimed in sarcasm.

"What's that supposed to mean Jeff?"

"Jeffrey…"

"It means you're into kinky stuff."

"Jeffrey…"

"That doesn't mean I'm for women objectifying themselves by allowing them to be restrained so men can feel like they're-."

"YOU GUYS!" They stopped arguing as they looked over at Shirley. "I um, I may have a pair of handcuffs I can lend you."

"What! This is really wrinkling my brain," Troy said in surprise.

"Wait, you have handcuffs," Jeff said in shock. "You?"

"Why does everyone act like I'm celibate? I have three kids, how do you think they got here?"

"It's just…" Jeff shook his head as he went back to his plan. "Troy and Abed, you two and Pierce stay here and fix the door to the cage. The rest of us are going to figure out how to find Annie."

"Hey, why didn't you ask if I had any handcuffs?" Pierce asked. "I have a whole variety you could have chosen from."

"You couldn't have said that _before_ I said anything," Shirley said with distain as she walked out with Jeff and Britta.

"Don't worry, your secret dies with us. And whoever follows Pierce's twitter account," Jeff told her. He felt his stomach, shocked that the bullet wound was completely healed, before becoming enraged at the person who shot him. "Have Elijah or Jordon ever played baseball?"

"Yeah, why?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'll be there in a minute!" Rich yelled as he strode across his apartment. He opened the door, frowning at who was behind it. "What the heck do you-?"

Before he could finish Jeff cracked him across the face with an aluminum baseball bat. Rich staggered backwards, gripping his nose as it gushed blood. "You broke my nose!" He cried out as Jeff swung the bat against his side. "OW!"

"She was safe before you interfered!" Jeff yelled as he hit Rich again across the face, causing the doctor to fall to the ground. "Now Annie's out there, probably killing people as we speak."

"She's not going to kill anyone right now," Rich said thickly as he held his nose. "She's been a wolf for four nights now and hasn't been able to take a life. She's not going to waste her first kill as a human. She's going to place herself in the most populated place she can find and wait until sunset. And then, there's going to be a real massacre. She won't be able to control herself. Though you, you might be able to."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know she bit you and you're now a werewolf. I shot you in the gut and a few hours later you're walking around fine. You'd only heal like that if you were a were. But my point is, when a person first becomes a werewolf, they retain some of their humanity during the first couple of transformations."

"There isn't anything human about Annie when she's a wolf," Jeff declared.

"Oh no? That first night she could have ripped apart anyone in that hospital, but she ran away without harming anyone. Annie was definitely in there then. But now, now she's just a beast that has to be put down."

Jeff readied to hit Rich again before Shirley gripped his hand. "Jeffrey." He put his arms down as Shirley knelt beside Rich. "You're going to help us find Annie before sunset," she said to him, her voice so scary that Rich inched away in fright. "And if we don't find her-."

"You're what? We both know you'll go to hell if you murder me," he said with false bravo.

"You're right. But the bible's not as clear about beating you within an inch of your life."

Rich paled, realizing just how serious Shirley was. "Why are you interfering with my work? She's an evil creature. There's nothing human about her."

"You're right about that," Shirley said with conviction. "But that girl is family, and we don't give up on family. Not when there's still a chance to save her."

"And what are you going to do if we don't get to her before she kills someone tonight?"

Shirley grew silent, not sure what should happen if Annie did indeed become that monster permanently. Before she could answer Jeff bashed Rich in the knee with the bat. He cried out as Britta turned him over and cuffed his hands together behind his back. "What are you going to do with me?"

"We're taking you with us so you can help us find Annie," Britta told him. "Where are your tranq guns and other werewolf weapons?"

"There in the trunk of my car."

"Then I guess we're taking your car." She patted him down and dug his keys out of his pocket before dragging him to his feet and forcing him to follow them.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"We've got to find her!" Jeff yelled.

"We will Jeffrey," Shirley told him as she continued to drive. They'd driven around for hours, searching the mall and other crowded places they could think of, but having no luck in finding Annie. It was now a little over an hour until sunset and they were getting desperate.

She looked in the review mirror, looking at Rich's swollen face. "You're not postponing this are you?"

"Why would I do that? I want to find her too."

"Britta," Jeff said to his friend, who was sitting next to Rich. She nodded her head before pinching Rich's broken nose.

"OW! I don't know anything!" Rich screamed.

Shirley looked over as Jeff pulled out his phone and looked at a text he'd just received. "Is that from one of the guys?"

"No, it's my boss. He's pissed that I took another day off during the middle of a case."

"Oh. What's the case anyway?"

"Some guy was leading a protest and was arrested for disturbing the peace, among other things. It's a fairly easy win, if he doesn't get in any more trouble before the trial. But he won't listen to reason. I've tried talking him out of the other protest he's having tonight…" Jeff trailed off as it all suddenly clicked together. "I know where Annie is."

"Where?"

"County field, across from Greendale bank. My client's having a protest rally there tonight; there'll be tons of people there. It's the perfect place."

"I'm on it," Shirley said as she gunned the car.

As she drove to the rally Rich kept his face passive as he gripped his left thumb with his other hand. He gritted his teeth before pulling at his thumb in a quick sharp motion. He did it twice more before he was able to dislocate it, using all his willpower not to yell out loud.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Let's go," Britta told Rich as she dragged him out of his car. He allowed her to keep hold of him as they opened the trunk. "Just take the tranquilizer guns. We're taking her alive," Jeff told them.

"That's what you think," Rich snarled as he slipped his left hand through the handcuffs. He whipped Britta across the face with the handcuffs before managing to grab a gun, a silver knife and one wolfsbane grenade. "Get back," he yelled as he held his gun at the three of them.

"What are you waiting for?" Jeff asked.

"I'm not going to kill you until you turn. Do you know how much werewolf fangs fetch on the black market?"

"So all that stuff about doing this because you have to was just a lie?"

"I'm honor bound to rid the world of you creatures. But I might as well profit from my work." He took a few steps back before racing off to find Annie. Shirley shot several darts at him, but wasn't able to hit him.

"Follow him! We'll look for Annie" Jeff yelled to Britta.

"I'm on it," she said as she ran after Rich. She ran through the parking lot and cut through the massive field, weaving through people who were already gathering. She saw Rich run towards a secluded area and went after him, losing him as he jumped over a trench. Britta leapt over the trench just as Rich sprang up and drove his knife into Britta's stomach. She gasped in shock as he punched her in the face to knock her out before picking her up and carrying her back to the parking lot.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Do you see either of them?" Jeff asked Shirley as they weaved through the crowd.

"No, I don't." She pulled out her phone, seeing Britta was calling her. "Britta, did you find Rich?"

"Hello Shirley." Shirley mouthed 'it's Rich' before putting the phone on speaker. "I've just stabbed Britta through her gut and put her in the backseat of my car. I missed any major organs, but if she doesn't get treatment right away she is going to die. You're going to come and take her to the hospital. Tell Jeff not to join you." And with that he hung up.

They both looked at the phone before Jeff told her, "Go, get Britta help."

"Jeff, it's almost sundown. You can't be out here once the sun sets."

"If you don't go Britta's going to die!" He rubbed his face as he tried to work out what to do. "Okay, Rich said werewolves keep some of their humanity when they first turn. Maybe I can control it enough so I don't hurt anyone when I turn."

"That's a huge maybe."

"Britta's dying, and Annie's out here ready to cause a massacre. We don't have time to debate logic here."

Shirley sighed before handing the tranquilizer gun over to Jeff. "I'm calling the guys to come here. Keep looking for Annie, but as soon as the sun starts setting use that gun to knock yourself out."

"What about Annie?"

"Jeffrey, I hate to say this, but only one of you might be able to be saved tonight." Before he could react to that she hugged him tightly before running off to the parking lot.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff tried to block out the darkening sky as he desperately searched the crowd for Annie. He saw a number of young brunette women, but not her. But just as he started to give up hope he picked up something in the air, a familiar feminine scent mixed with that of a feral canine.

He followed the scent until he saw Annie standing in the crowd. He walked over and pulled out the tranquilizer gun, pressing the barrel into her back. "Walk with me right now or I'll shoot you, he whispered.

Surprisingly she didn't put up a fight as they walked unnoticed through the crowd. He led her far away from the group before pushing her away from him. "I'm sorry," he said as he pulled the trigger. But as she dove out of the way all he heard was a hollow click as he realized he was out of darts. "Oh no."

"Lucky me, it must be fate," she said smugly, getting to her feet.

"Annie, listen to me, we don't have much time. We have to get away from here right now."

Her eyes widened as she sensed what was inside him. "You've turned, haven't you? You're a werewolf now."

"Annie, we have to get out of here."

"Why Jeff? Don't you see that we're no longer one of them. We're better than they are. We're powerful and primal and free. All we have to do is end their pitiful existence and we'll be like this forever."

"That's just the wolf talking. It's not you. You're Annie."

She scoffed at his continued repeating of her name. "Annie. You mean the weak child who lets everyone walk all over her. Who was so desperate not to lose her stupid educational status that she turned to drugs. She's a nothing junkie who should have died when she crashed through that window."

"That's not who you are. You're one of the strongest people I know. You inspire others and make them better people. That's the person I love. Don't throw all of that away."

"You don't mean any of that," she harshly told him. "If you did you would have said something long before now."

Jeff swallowed down the lump in his throat as he realized he might just have played a part in her embracing the beast inside of her. "You're right. I should have told you this sooner. I was too afraid to tell you how I really felt, but I'm more afraid of losing you. You're one of the best people I've ever met. I can't lose you. Don't give into this hatred inside of you. Fight it like you've always fought."

Her face softened as she felt shame at what she was allowing herself to become. Tears started forming as she shook from disgust at the realization that she was losing herself. But it only lasted a moment before the sun finally set, leaving them in darkness, and about to let out the beast inside of them.


	6. Chapter 6

Annie gritted her teeth as she felt her body tingle and grow hot. After four transformations, Annie knew what to expect once it was triggered. It still hurt like hell, but she was prepared for it.

Jeff however, didn't have that luxury. His breathing grew terrified as his body twitched and shook, before every nerve felt like it was being electrified. He fell to the ground, crying out as his bones broke and reshaped themselves. His cries mixed with Annie's as their clothes ripped to shreds and their bodies reshaped and reformed themselves. Jeff felt himself grow in size and mass as his nails became claws and his teeth grew into fangs. His yells morphed into a savage snarl as his transformation became complete.

He lifted his head as the two of them looked at each other, taking in their appearances. While she looked like a wolf the size of a St. Bernard, he was as big as a gorilla. But while they looked like giant wolves, their eyes were still the same. They looked into each other's shades of blue, seeing each other through the beast within.

Jeff snarled as he felt the urge to kill and rip people apart flow through him. He howled in terror as he fought to suppress his natural impulse. He pawed at the ground, straining to keep his mind from being taken over. _Focus_, he desperately thought. He looked at Annie, and immediately felt calmer. He poured all his mental energy onto focusing on her, remembering everything she had gone through in her life, and getting her through the night. As long as he could focus on Annie, he still managed to keep a part of him intact.

Annie watched Jeff struggle before she sniffed the air, picking up the scent of over a hundred people off in the distance. She howled in delight as she took off for the crowd. Jeff ran after her, leaping onto her as he pawed at her hindquarters. She snarled and wiggled out of his grasp before head butting him and clawing at his chest. He met her head on, fangs clashing against fangs as they fought for dominance. Jeff rose up on his back legs and swatted her to the ground before biting down on the back of her neck. She tried to get away, but he simply bit down harder. She snarled until the pressure on her neck became too much. Her body relaxed as she stopped struggling.

Just then a grenade landed in front of them, exploding wolfsbane and liquid silver all over them. Jeff fell down in pain, having taken the brunt of the explosion. Annie looked over as Rich walked towards them, his gun at the ready. Annie charged at him, taking a bullet without breaking stride. Rich backed up as he started pulling the trigger again when he tripped over a rock and fell backwards, his gun flying off into the grass. Annie leapt onto Rich, but before she could rip his throat open he pulled out his hunting knife and stabbed Annie in her stomach. As she roared in pain he scrambled up before kicking her onto her back.

"You think you deserve to escape this?" he said, his voice mad with rage as he stabbed her repeatedly. "My own brother couldn't escape being a werewolf. SO WHY SHOULD YOU BE CURED!" he screamed, puncturing each word with a stab to her body. Annie cried out as he stabbed her once more before sticking the knife in the ground. "If my own flesh and blood couldn't escape, no infected person will. Especially a junkie and a scumbag lawyer."

"Of course," he exclaimed as he pulled out a pair of pliers. "You beasts do have your uses. Those pearly white fangs will fetch me a hefty payload.

The cries that Annie echoed were almost human in their anguish as Rich ripped a fang from her mouth. He started to go for another one when he heard a low dangerous growl. He looked over as Jeff rose up on all fours, hurt but far from incapacitated. Rich grabbed the knife as Jeff rose up on his hind legs, stabbing Jeff in the chest but just missing his heart. As he pulled the knife out Jeff bit down into Rich's hand, ripping off two fingers and a large chunk of his palm. Rich screamed as Jeff flicked his head, sending the knife and separated flesh sailing off into the distance.

Rich fell onto his back as he cradled his mangled hand, his screams becoming more frightened as he realized he had just been bitten by a werewolf and was now infected. "NO, NO NO NO NO!" He looked up at Jeff, who dropped to all fours and stood over him. ""Do it, kill me!" But as he looked into Jeff's human eyes, he saw a hatred that went beyond animal savagery. Jeff snarled in an almost sadistic fashion as he stepped back from Rich.

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU AND YOUR BITCH!" Rich screamed as he scrambled to his feet and franticly looked for one of his weapons. Jeff growled but let him go, knowing it would be crueler to let him live at this point. Instead he went over to Annie, nuzzling her as she whimpered in pain.

Just then Jeff felt a sting in his butt, before he dropped to the ground unconscious. Rich looked around as he saw two figures approach the wolves. "What the hell-." He never finished his sentence as he was hit with a tranquilizer dart and dropped like a stone, hidden in a tall patch of grass.

Abed quickly shot Annie with a dart before looking at the two of them. Both were hurt, but Annie looked to be in a much worse state then Jeff. "Troy, get the van so we can bring them back." As Troy ran off Abed observed the two of them. They were healing from their injuries, but at a far slower rate than when Jeff's earlier stomach wound had healed. _Probably the liquid medal from the grenade_, he reasoned as he spotted the casing shell.

He shielded his face from the headlights as his father's delivery van roared over to them. A group of people from the rally, already wondering where the animal cries from earlier had come from, gathered around as Troy came out of the van. "Animal control everyone!" Abed yelled as he quickly flashed his Inspector Spacetime badge.

"We've got two dangerous Alpine wolves here, probably came down from the Rocky's. Keep back people!" Troy yelled in a Jersey accent as he and Abed worked to load Jeff and Annie into the van.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich opened his eyes as he groggily sat up and looked at his hand. The wound had healed over, but his fingers hadn't grown back. He cursed when he saw that Jeff and Annie were no longer there. "No. They're not going to escape." He raced to his car, trying to ignore the tremors in his arms and the feeling like his skin was too tight for his body. He grabbed a gun from the trunk and made sure it was loaded with silver bullets before speeding off for Abed's dad's store.

He made it only a few blocks from the field before his arms seized up. He let out a cry as he lost control of his car, swerving into the oncoming lane and crashing into a car. Both cars spun around before the other one came to a stop. Rich's drove another few feet before the engine completely died.

"What the hell asshole!" the other driver yelled as he got out of his car. "What are you, drunk or something?" He started walking toward Rich's car when a gun shot was suddenly heard. The other driver ran over, seeing a man in the driver's seat with his head practically blown off.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"It's almost time," Shirley said, tapping her phone to indicate dawn was upon them. She and Abed continued watching the cage, where Annie and Jeff were lying on their stomachs, all of their previous wounds completely healed. Once they got them in the cage they decided to take no chances, and kept shooting them with tranquilizer darts whenever they started to wake up.

"Here we go," Abed said as Shirley's phone alarm went off, signaling that the sun was rising. They watched as the fur retreated into Jeff and he turned back into a man. But unlike other mornings, this time Annie wasn't turning back into her. She remained in her wolf form, seeming to grow greyer and molten sickly in front of their eyes.

Just as they were about to check on her Shirley yelped as the skin of the wolf's back split open like a hollowed husk. They looked on in amazement as the canine flesh fell off of her like a snake skin. As the hollowed shell of the werewolf fell apart they saw what was underneath; their Annie, perfectly human.

Jeff stirred and looked over, seeing Annie lying in an opened cocoon of dried wolf carcass. He crawled over to her and gently caressed her cheek. "Annie."

Annie stirred as she heard a familiar voice; although it was gentler then she'd ever remembered hearing it. She opened her eyes, blinking away her drowsiness as Jeff's face came into full view. "Jeff," she squeaked out in a small voice.

"It's okay, you're all right." He helped lift her out of the shell and held onto her as she trembled against him. "You're all right." He choked back a sob as he gripped her tightly. "I thought we lost you."

He looked over as the cage door swung open and Shirley threw each of them a set of clothes. "Welcome back you two."

Jeff looked at the two of them, seeing that they were three study members short. "Where's Britta, is she all right?"

"She'll be fine," Shirley told them. "She's going to have to spend several days in the hospital, but they said she'll make a full recovery. Troy and Pierce went to the emergency room once you two were brought back here."

Jeff breathed a sigh of relief as he and Annie put their clothes on. "What about Rich?" he asked.

"We haven't seen or heard anything from him ever since I knocked him out in the field," Abed exclaimed.

"I bit him," Jeff told them, feeling a bit of regret now that he was back to being human. "That means he's a werewolf now."

"There weren't any news reports of another wolf roaming around," Shirley said. "And with this cycle over, he won't turn again until the next one. So we won't have to worry about him attacking anyone until a month from now. We'll make sure we find him before then. "

"We sure will," Jeff said as he finished dressing.

Annie's hands trembled as she remembered everything that had happened during her time as a heartless monster. Tears fell down her cheeks as she slowly got to her feet, not able to look Shirley or Abed in the eye. "I'm so sorry," she told them, her voice thick with emotion. "The things I said to you two, to everyone, it was horrible."

"Yes it was," Shirley sternly told her before her voice softened. "But I've done a lot of thinking about this whole thing, and I believe you weren't you when you said those horrible things. You were that monster during that time, even when you weren't in its beast form."

"That doesn't excuse what I did during that time," she stoically replied. "Just like I can't be excused for what I did when I was on Adderall. But I'm truly sorry for hurting you. Especially after you stuck by me after everything I said."

"You're our family Annie," Abed simply said. "It's what we do."

Shirley looked at her phone as it received an incoming text. "It's Troy. He said they're allowing Britta to have visitors. Abed, let's go see how Britta's doing. You two, come by whenever you're ready. Okay?"

"Alright." Jeff said.

"Shirley wait," Annie cried as she walked over to her. While she knew she needed to apologize to everyone, she couldn't wait to make amends with Shirley." "I don't even know how to begin to apologize to you. The things I said…they were beyond cruel. And then after everything you still put your life in danger to help me. That was…"

"Oh honey," Shirley exclaimed as she hugged her friend. "I wasn't about to have you remain being that cruel monster, no matter what I had to do. I know you're sorry, and I forgive you."

Annie let go of Shirley as she looked over at Abed. "Abed, I'm sorry-."

"You weren't yourself Annie," he simply said. "You can't blame Angel that much for the actions of Angelus. Though that's with the concept that they're two separate entities. If we use the earlier Buffy logic it becomes a little murkier."

"Right," she said, actually knowing what he was talking about. "But either way, I am sorry."

Abed looked at her, seeming to sense something she wasn't revealing. He nodded his head before saying to Shirley, "Let's go see Britta."

"Okay. We'll see you two later," Shirley told them.

"We'll meet you there later," Jeff said as they walked upstairs. He felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out from his pants, seeing it was a text from Abed.

_She's hanging on by a thread. Help her._

Jeff frowned as he looked at Annie, seeing how tense her back looked. "How are you doing?"

She turned around; her face revealing the anguish she had kept in check was breaking out. "How am I doing? I'm a wreck Jeff. I tried to kill you guys."

"But you didn't Annie. You didn't hurt anyone."

"I wanted to. I wanted to literally eat you guys. And I did hurt you guys. The things I said and did were inexcusable. Even at my worst I never imagined I could be that cruel."

"That wasn't you Annie, that was the wolf. It made you say and do those things."

"How do you know that!" she yelled. "How do you know it just didn't bring out what was already inside of me? Did the wolf know that it drives me nuts when Shirley continuously tries to convert me? Or that it upsets me that you can't decide how you feel about me? What if becoming a werewolf just amplified what I already feel? Maybe I am just a cruel person who keeps it hidden deep down."

"Annie…yes, you can be mean at times. And maybe you do feel resentment over how you're treated by others. But that's everyone. We all do things to each other that hurt feelings. But we look over and accept those faults because we want to be with the person they are. I mean, you guys keep being my friend no matter how many selfish things I do," he finished with a smirk.

Annie glared at him, not feeling any better. "And what if you're right and it was all the wolf. That means it was controlling me, violating me." Her breathing became more rapid as she remembered trying to entice Jeff in the cage. "Oh God…" Jeff went over to her, but she shoved him back. "Don't touch me! I, I don't know what's worse. That I'm cruel and this just brought it out, or that I was controlled and violated by this thing!" She dropped to her knees, gasping for breath through choke filled sobs.

"Annie, look at me," Jeff said as he knelt down and put his hands on her shoulders. She tried struggling away, but he held on tight. "Look at me!" She lifted her head up, looking into his anguish filled eyes. "None of this is your fault. You've gone through something extremely traumatic, and it won't get better anytime soon. But you're not a victim, you're a survivor. And no matter what you said or did, you are Annie Edison, one of the strongest people I know."

"Don't lie to make me feel better-."

"I'm not lying. Annie, last night just before sunset I saw your face, when I was begging you not to give in to the beast inside. And even after all your declarations of liking being a monster, in the end you realized you didn't want to be like this. It was just for a few moments before the sun set, but the Annie I know and love, she was still inside. And she couldn't have come out if you hadn't been so strong and courageous."

"That doesn't mean-."

Jeff groaned in frustration, gripping her shoulders a little tighter. "Alright, you need more proof? Well here it is. Last night I became a werewolf, and once I turned, all I wanted to do was kill and eat people. And as I struggled to resist I thought about you, how you constantly pull yourself up no matter what's thrown at you, and that made me fight to keep my humanity. You kept me human, Annie. Only someone who inspires others can accomplish that."

Her breathing became calmer as she thought about what she had just heard. But then her face crumbled in anguish as she looked at Jeff. "Jeff, you're a monster now. Because of me you're now this evil thing."

"And I'd do it again if it kept you from becoming a monster. And I didn't kill anyone last night. So when the next full moon occurs, we'll just lock me up until it passes and I should be good." His face became deadly serious as he looked into her eyes. "Annie, I don't care if I have to be a werewolf for a few nights. But the thought of losing you…I was never more scared than when I thought you might have turned permanently. I need you. And I wish it didn't take all of this for me to finally man up and tell you how I really feel. But I'm sick of ignoring how I much you mean to me."

Her face almost crumbled at realizing what Jeff was saying, at finally hearing what she had waiting so long to hear. He leaned in to kiss her, but she backed her head away. "Jeff, I can't. After everything…I can't jump into this right away. I need some time to process everything that's happened since I was attacked."

"I understand," he said, his voice stating he wasn't thrilled, but would give her space.

She let out a tiny smile as she caressed his cheek. "I'm not saying no, just that I need time. But when I'm ready…"


	7. Chapter 7

**One month later**

Annie sat on her folding chair, watching Jeff as he paced back and forth on all fours. It was the fifth night of the full moon cycle. She had hoped since Jeff had turned during the last night last month it might have end after the fourth night. But it seemed Abed was right, and a werewolf couldn't kill for a full complete cycle for the curse to be broken.

Luckily, they had had plenty of time to take all necessary precautions this time around, unlike when Annie had turned. They built a jail cell in Pierce's basement, with four inch reinforced steel bars and five industrial locks. The cell was outfitted enough so Jeff would be comfortable during his stay, with a cot and rations and even an outhouse. They even set up a video monitor so he could be watched from upstairs without people actually being in the room with him. For Jeff's part he took off work that week and locked himself up the morning of the first night, ordering everyone that no matter what he was to remain caged until the curse broke.

The first day wasn't bad, with Jeff being more or less Jeff. People stayed with him during the day, acting as normally as they could with one of their friends in a jail cell who would turn into a werewolf at night. He was even a good sport when Abed and Troy talked him and Britta into playing charades. But by the second morning the wolf started taking over, and he wanted to get out. He'd yell to be let out, and that he'd lock himself up once it was sunset. Then when that didn't work he acted intentionally cruel to everyone, and tried all sort of tricks to get himself out of his cell, like pretending he was dying so the group would unlock the door and come to him.

Luckily no one fell for any of his ploys. No matter what happened everyone had a strict rule not to come within an arm's length of the cage. And if they did have to go in the cage, they knocked him out with a tranquillizer dart before approaching. Through Annie they knew how manipulative a person under the werewolf curse could be, and they took no chances whatsoever.

Annie sighed as she watched Jeff in his cage, literally counting down the time on her phone as she waited for morning. They all wanted the sun to rise so it would all be over. She had been apprehensive all month before this full moon cycle arrived. And now after five days and four nights, she had only a few hours to wait until the curse broke and this entire ordeal could be put behind them.

It hadn't been easy for Annie, dealing with everything that had happened to her. Before she could deal with herself she had to make amends and earn forgiveness for her actions. After being forgiven by Shirley and Abed, and her breakdown with Jeff in Abed's father's store basement, she went to the hospital to see Britta, Troy and Pierce.

Surprisingly, of the three of them Britta most easily forgave her. Like Shirley, she believed Annie wasn't herself during that time, no matter how much Annie tried not to escape blame for her actions. Britta was much angrier at Rich for stabbing her, and felt no remorse when they learned that he had killed himself following a car accident.

While Troy more or less had the same thought pattern as everyone else of blaming the wolf, he wasn't able to immediately forgive her. He wanted to, but found it hard given how much she had manipulated him to try and escape, and made him wonder if deep down she truly resented him for how he used to treat her and how he lived his life. The two of them ended up having a long talk with each other. In the end he was able to forgive her, and the two of them were even closer than before this terrible ordeal began.

Naturally Pierce was the hardest to deal with following everything. He was extremely resentful for how she had treated him during that time, stating, "I would have expected that from one of the others, but not my favorite." But while he didn't actually say he forgave her, he did pay for her dental implant (the tooth Rich ripped out never grew back and she had to have a fake one put in). He even paid extra to make sure it seamlessly matched her other teeth, saying, "You have a 100 watt smile, and it shouldn't be ruined by having you look like a hillbilly or a Persian." So while he never vocally said he forgave her, she took his actions as his way of forgiving her.

After Annie was forgiven by the group, she had to then come to terms with everything that had happened to her. The sad truth was that she had been violated. First by the initial wolf attack that turned her, and then by the curse that poisoned her into a vile hatful person. The very thought of it made her feel disgusted and ashamed.

It took her a while to work through it all. She started off by talking it over with Britta, figuring her therapy training might be of help. And while Britta did sometimes put a unique interpretative spin on things, she did help her with figuring out how to deal with it. Annie also went to some meetings for people who had been attacked and violated (though she altered her story so she didn't reveal what actually happened). And hearing others talk about how they moved on with their lives after being violated helped Annie to know it was possible to heal.

And through it all was Jeff, who became her rock in it all. They talked a lot about how she was feeling, and that no matter what, she was a fighter who was capable of surviving this and coming out of it stronger than she was before it happened. It helped her immensely to have someone believe in her so strongly.

As time went on she began to feel she was ready to act on the growing feelings they had for one another. But unfortunately, just as she felt she was ready, Jeff ended up backing off. At first she angrily thought he was just being denying his feelings like he always did. But he assured her that wasn't the case. Instead he said he was afraid of getting close to her while the werewolf was inside of him, and wanted to wait until the curse was broken. After hearing that she agreed it was for the best. She had already waited this long; a little while more wouldn't make too much of a difference.

In the weeks leading up to the change, Jeff grew more and more nervous at what would happen to him when the full moon cycle arrived. Not just the physical aspect of turning into a monstrous wolf, but what it would do to his mind and psyche during the daytime. He'd seen how it had affected Annie, and he was scared of losing himself. Knowing how he had been there for her, Annie promised Jeff that she would be with him through it all.

So once it began, she spent every day in that basement with Jeff. While the others chose to watch Jeff from the upstairs monitor, she actually stayed with him in the room. It was far from easy. First she had to endure seeing him painfully turn into a wolf and then throw himself at the bars in an attempt to escape. And then she had to put up with all the insults and verbal attacks he threw at her when he was human. He told her she was just being naïve in helping him and in the end he would happily hurt her. That in the end her ambition would leave her friendless and alone. She had to remind herself it was the wolf talking and the real Jeff was still in there. She even got glimpses of him from time to time, both in human and wolf form. It was those glimpses that helped her see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"It's almost time Jeff," she told him as he watched her through the cage. She inched her chair as close to the cell as she could allow herself to go. While she was looking at a wolf, the eyes in its face were still Jeff's. They stared back at her, showing the depth of his feelings for her even within the form of a beast. She smiled as she yawned and felt her eyes close.

Annie jerked her head up as she heard a ringing in her pocket. She pulled her phone out, seeing that the alarm was going off. She gasped as she realized that it was sunrise. That is was now finally ending.

She watched as the wolf let out a terrified howl on anguish before dropping to its stomach. Its brown fur became grey and listless as it's body seemed to dry out. Though Jeff had told her what to expect, she still wasn't prepared when the skin broke apart and fell off in pieces. She pressed her face against the bars as she saw the real Jeff lying in the decaying shell of the now dead wolf.

"Jeff!" She unlocked the cage as quickly as she could before rushing inside and kneeling beside Jeff. "Jeff," she repeated more softly she stroked his hair.

He sired as his eyes opened and he looked up at her. "Annie."

"I'm here Jeff." She pulled apart the rest of the dried carcass before pulling Jeff into her arms. She held him tightly as she felt his body shake against hers. "It's okay, I'm right here."

"I…I don't know how you did this," he said shakily.

"I had a lot of help," she simply responded.

"Annie, I know we talked about this already beforehand, but I'm so sorry for everything I said to you-"

"Jeff, I know." She pulled back slightly so she was properly facing him. "I know you're sorry, and that you weren't you when you said those things. Yes, it was terrible to hear, but I can't hold you at fault for what you were made to say and do. You forgave me when I was a monster, so it wouldn't be fair if I held what you did during your time as that thing against you."

"I still feel bad."

"I know. And I'll be here for you. Whatever you need." She patted his shoulder as she started to get up. "I should make sure the others know you're alright."

"No, wait," he said as he pulled her back down. "Can you just stay here for a little while longer?"

"Sure," she said as she got comfortable next to him.

He started putting an arm around her when he suddenly realized he wasn't wearing anything. "I should get dressed."

"You don't necessity _have_ to," she said slyly.

"Pervert," he said with a laugh. He pulled her into him as he leaned down and kissed her temple. She leaned upward and kissed his jawline. They moved closer to each other with their kissed until their lips connected, both feeling a fire that had been kept in check for far too long.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Britta yawned as she sat up on the couch and stretched. "I really hate that couch…" she trailed off as she looked out the window and saw that it was morning. "It's morning! Guys, its morning! Wake up!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Troy sleepily said as he and Abed came out of the kitchen. "It's not like we fell asleep while playing coffee can counter hokey last night."

"Guys, it's morning. That means the curse is broken. Jeff's alright!"

"I'll check the video screen," Abed said. He went over to the video monitor when he paused to look at it, seeing Annie straddling a naked Jeff while frantically unbuttoning her blouse. He watched for a moment, surprised not so much that this was happening but that it was happening now, before shutting off the video monitor. "Let's just give him a few minutes. Maybe twenty to be safe."

"Why?" Britta asked. "Why did you turn off the monitor? Wait, where's Annie?" Her eyes widened as she figured out what was going on. "Oh, you've got to be…he's back to being himself for a minute and they're already…" She chuckled as she shook her head. "I say give them at least a half an hour."

"Wait, what's…" Troy's jaw dropped as he finally got what was going on. "Okay, now my brain is permanently wrinkled."


End file.
